PDF18: Specifying the document title using the Title entry in the document
information dictionary of a PDF document

Important Information about Techniques

See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.

User Agent and Assistive Technology Support Notes

Description

The intent of this technique is to show how a descriptive title for
a PDF document can be specified for assistive technology by using the
/Title entry in the document information dictionary and by setting
the DisplayDocTitle flag to True in a viewer preferences dictionary.
This is typically accomplished by using a tool for authoring PDF.

Document titles identify the current location without requiring users
to read or interpret page content. User agents make the title of the
page easily available to the user for identifying the page. For instance,
a user agent may display the page title in the window title bar or
as the name of the tab containing the page.

Examples

Example 1: Setting the document title in the metadata and specifying
that the title be displayed in the title bar using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Select the Description tab to view the metadata in the document,
including the document information dictionary

Modify the Title field to add or change the document's Title entry

Note that, with Adobe Acrobat installed, you can also enter and read
the data properties information from the desktop. Access the file's
context menu, choose Properties, and select the PDF tab. Any information
you type or edit in this dialog box also appears in the Document Properties
Description when you open the file.

To display the document title in the title bar of a user agent:

Select File > Properties

Select the Initial View tab

In the Window Options section, select Document Title in the Show
pull-down list.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Verify that the title for the document is correctly specified and
displayed in the user agent title bar by applying one of the following:

Open the PDF document with a screen reader, listening to hear
that the document title is read correctly.

Using a PDF editor, check that the document title is specified.
Select the Initial View tab to check that the title will be displayed.

Use a tool which is capable of showing the /Title entry value
in the document catalog to open the PDF document and view the
/Title entry and /DisplayDocTitle flag settings.

Expected Results

#1 is true.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.